


(not) a hero

by lionheart8



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Brotherly Steve Harrington & Dustin Henderson, Gen, Steve Harrington-centric, i cried, like really sad, very sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-25 14:29:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20027335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionheart8/pseuds/lionheart8
Summary: After reading countless posts about Steve protecting Dustin and getting *seriously* harmed along the way I wrote this."'If you die, I die'; echoed in Steve’s brain.Dustin is Steve’s responsibility maybe his first responsibility."





	(not) a hero

**Author's Note:**

> I have been wanting to write something like this for a long time. Then, everyone on twitter started talking about what could happen in s4 and I was inspired.
> 
> I cried writing this. Hope you'll like it! (and you'll cry too).

It’s a little over than a year later when the same shit show happens. 

Steve grabs his bat, the one he so terribly missed in the summer of ’85, and curses under his breath to their luck.

He doesn’t understand the science side of things. He is not even sure anybody understands at this point-not even the genius, nerd kids. So he is quite confused as to why they have to do this over and over again in some sort of cycle.

He doesn’t say it out loud though. He just marches into battle like he had done in the Byers house with Nancy and Jonathan in ’83 or at the junkyard with Dustin, Max and Lucas in ’84 or in the Russian base where he attacked the guard and later crashed a car in ’85. 

Dustin is right by his side like always. The kid, he is a teen now but whatever Steve needs to keep his authority, is the brains. He makes the plans, he shows them the way and Steve just follows. 

Robin, his age-appropriate best friend, is right by his side too. She is both the brains and the muscles. She makes some parts of the plan and fights along side of Steve. 

Erica, a literal kid he befriended, is with them too. She might be smarter than Dustin, Steve thinks but doesn’t say. She gets them out of trouble and keeps them moving. 

Every little group gets together. They exchange their stories and try to understand the big picture. Piece by piece they plot out a plan. Everyone has their own tasks.

It takes a few hours and Steve takes more than a few hits to his face but it’s almost over. 

Some of the groups are already back together but the threat is still there. This new kind of monster they are facing almost looks like a human. 

They hear noises again and everybody goes on full alert mode. Steve and Robin pulls Erica and Dustin behind them. Lucas, Max and Will clutches together with Jonathan next to them. Eleven is somewhere else using her powers and Mike is, obviously, with her and Nancy too. 

The "real adults” are on their own mission so the most adult person in the room is Steve. He is in nowhere qualified to be a real adult but he knows he needs to be; he knows everybody there is his responsibility. 

A monster barges to them and everybody spreads away. Robin drags Erica by the arm. Dustin runs to the other side. Lucas pulls his slingshot. Jonathan has his axe. Max (she has a bat now too) and Will backs up. Steve holds his bat tight. 

Lucas hits the monster. Steve and Jonathan swing their weapons of choice. It looks like they are going to win. 

Steve makes a head count. He knows Erica is safe with Robin. Before the monster gets to Max and Will it needs to go through Steve, Jonathan and Lucas so that’s not going to happen. Steve and Jonathan are between Lucas and the monster so he is relatively safe too. Steve can make sure the monster doesn’t touch Jonathan. 

Dustin…He frantically searches for the curly haired boy and spots him across them by his hat. That stupid hat. 

It’s that moment Steve sees another monster approaching to Dustin. He shares a look with Jonathan and runs away hoping Byers could deal with that previous monster. 

Dustin is practically his best friend, like the little brother he never had. Dustin found him heartbroken and dragged him into chasing demo dogs. He patched Steve up with colorful band-aids after he lost a fight and cheered on Steve a year later when he won a fight. Dustin was the one person that got happy for Steve when he graduated and even when he got that shitty job at Scoops Ahoy. He still hangs out with Steve though he doesn't need Steve and his bat. They have so much fun together; constantly cracking up. The shit head is so smart and so curious; he made Steve get a library card just because he needed to check out more books. Dustin has the biggest heart. He never shows how sad he truly is, he never hurts his friends. 

_If you die, I die_; echoed in Steve’s brain. 

Dustin is Steve’s responsibility maybe his first responsibility. It doesn’t matter if the younger boy is smarter, more resourceful than Steve. It doesn’t matter if Steve says _“Germans?”_ and Dustin corrects him saying _“Nazis.”_. It doesn’t matter if Dustin has his life more together than Steve. Steve is the older one, the protector or as everyone liked to call "the mom”. Hell, he knows he acts like a mom with all his ordering and driving the little shits around and letting them crash into his house and cooking for them. 

So Steve pushes a startled Dustin back causing him to almost fall to the ground. He swings his bat but he is slower than usual. It doesn’t do the damage he intends to. 

He tries to swing the bat again, ignoring his heart beating in his ears and the fear growing inside him. 

But it’s too late. 

The monster jumps on him. His bat falls to the ground. Next thing he knows he is on the ground too looking up at the face of the demogorgon that had been in his nightmares for the past three years.

Dustin is in his vision now. He is about to run to the older boy and Steve tries to scream and tell him to go hide but he can’t get the words out of his mouth. Thankfully, Erica escapes from Robin’s grasp and stops Dustin. 

Erica, is too wise for her age and deals with too much for her age. 

Steve hears a few shouts. Jonathan and Lucas takes down the other monster but Steve knows they won’t be making next to him in time. Will and Max are already next to Dustin. Max drops her own bat to the ground too. She probably doesn't know what to do and Steve is just glad she isn't doing anything stupid.

Robin somehow finds a gun. She starts shooting at the demogorgon. Robin gets closer and Steve is barely holding on.

Before he goes, he just needs to know everybody else makes it out alive. 

A few seconds later the demogorgon flies away. Steve, with his half-shot eyes, sees El approaching to them. Steve wishes he had the chance to know the girl better. 

The next five seconds feels like a good ten minutes to Steve. 

He always thought “the life flashing before your eyes” was too cheesy and not true. Like in many things, he is gravely mistaken.

_His mom making him pancakes. _

_Learning to play basketball. _

_Rolling up a joint with Tommy H. _

_Everybody in school watching Steve. _

_The teary look on a freshman’s face when King Steve makes fun of him. _

_Nancy Wheeler and her sweet smile. _

_Nancy slapping him.  
_

_Seeing the demo gorgon. Running back inside. Jonathan throwing the lighter. _

_Draining the pool in his house. _

_Driving Nancy to school._

_Bullshit. _

_Dustin grabbing the roses in his hands. _

_Giving Dustin advice. Protecting the kids time and time again. A plate to his head. _

_Driving Dustin and the little shits around. _

_Dustin giving him a radio for his birthday. _

_The party trying to teach him D&D. _

_Dustin beaming when Steve agrees to have a special handshake with him._

_His father saying how much of a disappointment he is. _

_Robin and her white board. _

_Winning his first fight. _

_Robin coming out to him. The vomit and blood on his stupid uniform as they laugh._

_Going to Hopper’s funeral. _

_Max smiling for the first time in weeks when Steve buys her a new skateboard._

_Driving with Robin as she sings at the top of her lungs. _

_Giving Dustin driving lessons. Babysitting Erica and getting schooled by her. The party teaching him what Ewoks are. _

He wishes the images were only the good ones. But that’s life for you. At least he has enough good memories to balance out the bad and the traumatic ones. 

Maybe he should start using past tense. He is almost slipping away after all.

It’s okay. Dustin will miss him terribly and probably blame himself but he has the party. Robin will lose her confidant but she has Dustin and Erica. Erica, well she is the queen of her own little clique and she has the rest of the Scoops Troop. The kids have each other. Nancy and Jonathan have each other. 

It’s not like he is a key piece in all these battles. He is not Hopper. They can all go on with their monster fighting and regular lives just fine.

He is pushing only 21 but it’s really okay. He feels like he lived a life three times longer than that. He went from being a nice kid to a stupid teenager who had his head far up his ass to surrounding himself with better people and apologizing to adopting a bunch of kids to befriending the coolest band geek and getting a dead end job. He did all these while fighting to save the world from inter dimensional monsters too.

He wasn’t a hero, though. He was just a regular person who found himself in the middle of action and tried doing his best which meant swinging a nail cladded bat and occasionally punching the bad guys. 

It’s a good finish to his life.

Anyway, his life wasn't going anywhere : that’s a fact. He would have been stuck in Hawkins his whole life (not being good enough for another place) probably becoming broke after refusing to work for his father. Everybody else’s lives are going somewhere though. Dustin is too smart for this old town. He will probably go off to a top university and become a mad scientist and maybe even marry Suzie somewhere in the future. 

Steve wishes he could be there to see it all. He is pretty sure Dustin wouldn’t take that hat off in his graduation or his wedding.

If him dying means Dustin could live, Steve would make the same decision over and over again. Dustin was never a bad person like Steve was. Steve is sure Dustin will never be a bad person. If Dustin was to die, the other kids would be devastated. Steve cannot watch that. Those shits, don't deserve another loss in their lives. If it's Dustin's life for Steve's, it is a good deal. (He could have never lived with Dustin's blood on his hands either).

He hopes Robin will get herself a new best friend who is on the same _dingus_ level as Steve. He hopes she will find someone else to open up to, someone else that knows her little secret in this bigoted place. Lastly, he hopes she will find herself a girlfriend just as cool as she is (and that her taste in girls will improve).

He hopes the Sinclairs will find some other babysitter that could deal with Erica. He hopes Erica will give a chance to that other babysitter. He hopes she will get the chance to live her childhood from then on.

He hopes nobody else is harmed after him. He hopes that they'll all be fine.

He really should have made a will considering their track record.

  * his bat goes to Max
  * Dustin gets the car
  * the kids can raid his closet and grab whatever expensive clothing his parents got him
  * his one specific grey bomber goes to Robin
  * also all of his records go to Robin
  * any little money he has goes to Ms.Byers
  * a few books his father gave him about business and economics goes to Erica
  * his black raybans goes to Lucas
  * anything else Dustin wants from his room he can get it

But he didn't make a will so it's anyone's guess who will take what.

Steve sees a mop of curly hair running to him, screaming his name. 

He drifts off before Dustin reaches him. 

He knows this is exactly what a big brother should be like. 

He knows at least his last two years and his death had a meaning. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it!
> 
> We all know something like this could happen...Steve has been protecting people for all three seasons. 
> 
> If it wasn't for him,
> 
> -Nancy and Jonathan could have died.  
-Dustin, Max and Lucas could have been injured in the junkyard.  
-Billy could have beaten up Lucas.  
-Flayed Billy could have crushed and killed Nancy, Jonathan, Will and Lucas...
> 
> He is quite literally the hero. And I feel like this could, however painful it is, be a good ending to his character arc. I actually expected them to kill Steve off this season just because he had an amazing character development and as far as we know his storyline doesn't have any open endings. (I really want him to be happy forever and have a good future because he deserves it but it's just that the show isn't giving me any future for him...so I am preparing for the worst)
> 
> Anyway, here is me justifying Steve's, my favourite character's death if it were to happen. 
> 
> Please leave a comment or come talk to me on tumblr @youleavebehindmemories
> 
> Maybe I can do a part two about what Dustin thinks at this moment or after?


End file.
